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Sleep deprivation is associated with a higher mortality risk and productivity losses at work. Economic modelling of data from five OECD countries found that individuals who sleep fewer than six hours a night on average have a 13 per cent higher mortality risk than people who sleep at least seven hours. At a national level, up to 3 per cent of GDP is lost due to lack of sleep, and an increase in sleep could add billions of dollars to a country's economy.

Background

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the United States has declared insufficient sleep a ‘public health problem’, with more than one-third of American adults not getting enough sleep on a regular basis. However, insufficient sleep is not exclusively a US problem; it equally concerns other countries.

Some evidence indicates the proportion of people sleeping less than the recommended hours of sleep is rising. This has been associated with lifestyle factors related to a modern 24/7 society, such as psychosocial stress, alcohol consumption, smoking, lack of physical activity and excessive electronic media use, among others. Sleep is considered essential for health, productivity and wellbeing. A lack of sleep has been found to be associated with a range of negative health and social outcomes, and it has an influence on health status as well as success in school and the labour market.

Because of the potential adverse effects of insufficient sleep on health, wellbeing and productivity, the consequences of sleep deprivation have far-reaching and expensive economic consequences. However, efforts to quantify the economic effects of sleep deprivation have been limited thus far.

Goals

The aim of this study was to assess the wider economic and societal effects of sleep deprivation, or so-called ‘short sleep’, in four key stages:

The project team developed an understanding of the factors associated with insufficient sleep and poor sleep quality.

The study then revisited the existing literature on the link between insufficient sleep and mortality risk to synthesise and evaluate this empirical evidence using a meta-analytical approach.

To assess the economic effects of insufficient sleep, the team quantified the productivity effects of insufficient sleep using a large linked employer-employee dataset.

Finally, the project team put all of their quantitative empirical estimates into context and applied them in a bespoke analytical modelling framework to estimate the loss in economic output due to insufficient sleep for five different OECD countries.

Findings

The U.S. sustains by far the highest economic losses (up to $411 billion a year, which is 2.28 per cent of its GDP) due to the size of its economy, followed by Japan (up to $138 billion a year, which is 2.92 per cent of its GDP). Germany (up to $60 billion, 1.56 per cent of its GDP) and the UK (up to $50 billion, 1.86 per cent of its GDP) have similar losses. Canada has the lowest financial losses due to lack of sleep (up to $21.4 billion, which is 1.35 per cent of its GDP).

Small changes to sleep duration could have a big impact on the economy. For example, if individuals that slept under six hours started sleeping six to seven hours then this could add $226.4 billion to the U.S. economy. This could add $75.7 billion to the Japanese economy, $34.1 billion to the German economy, $29.9 billion to the UK economy and $12 billion to the Canadian economy.

Sleep deprivation is linked to lower productivity at work, which results in a significant amount of working days being lost each year. On an annual basis, the U.S. loses an equivalent of around 1.2 million working days due to insufficient sleep. This is followed by Japan, which loses on average 600,000 working days per year. The UK and Germany both lose just over 200,000 working days. Canada loses around 80,000 working days.

Sleep deprivation is linked to a higher mortality risk. An individual that sleeps on average less than six hours per night has a 13 per cent higher mortality risk than someone sleeping between seven and nine hours. An individual sleeping between six to seven hours per day still has a seven per cent higher mortality risk.

Recommendations

To improve sleep outcomes

Individuals could: Set consistent wake-up times; limit the use of electronic items before bedtime; and exercise.

Employers could: Recognise the importance of sleep and the employer’s role in its promotion; design and build brighter workspaces; combat workplace psychosocial risks; and discourage the extended use of electronic devices.

Public authorities could: Support health professionals in providing sleep-related help; encourage employers to pay attention to sleep issues; and introduce later school starting times.

Publication

This report examines the economic burden of insufficient sleep across five different OECD countries. The findings of this study suggest that insufficient sleep can result in large economic costs in terms of lost GDP and lower labour productivity.

Project Team

Senior Economist

Marco Hafner is a senior economist and research leader at RAND Europe working on employment, education and social policy research. He completed his doctoral studies in economics and applied econometrics and holds a master’s degree in economics from the University of Zurich.

Policy Analyst

Jirka Taylor is a policy analyst at the RAND Corporation. He works in the area of criminal justice and social policy. His research interests include licit and illicit drug markets, community safety, and social and health policy interventions. He frequently works on evaluations, impact…

Senior Behavioral and Social Scientist

Wendy Troxel is a senior behavioral and social scientist at the RAND Corporation and an adjunct faculty member in psychiatry and psychology at the University of Pittsburgh. She is a licensed clinical psychologist and certified behavioral sleep medicine specialist. Troxel is…

Vice President, RAND Europe

Christian van Stolk is vice president at RAND Europe and director of the Home Affairs and Social Policy research group. He has worked extensively on social and employment policies and recently finished a review for the UK Government on improving employment outcomes of those with mental health…

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Quoted

There's some research that shows that if you're a well-slept person you tend to be more productive on average which subsequently has a positive effect on your long-term earnings.

Senior Economist

People who don't sleep enough are more likely to die at any given point in time. And that obviously reduces the labor supply of an economy. If people don't sleep enough they are less productive at work, which subsequently also has negative consequences for companies.

Senior Economist

Senior Economist

Later school start times are the one intervention that evidence has shown could make a demonstrable impact on reducing the epidemic of teen sleep deprivation. We need good parenting and we need good policy.

Senior Behavioral and Social Scientist

Independent of whether you need a bit more sleep or a bit less sleep, anything below six hours a night for the normal person is associated with negative consequences in terms of health and productivity.

Senior Behavioral and Social Scientist

If people who currently sleep less than six hours began to sleep six to seven hours instead, this could add billions of dollars to national economies. It would also help to reduce the risk of individual health problems in the future.

Senior Economist

No one is arguing that there aren't multiple causes of adolescent sleep loss. However, school start times are the only policy-level issue that has been identified as directly contributing to the problem.

Senior Behavioral and Social Scientist

A small change [in school start time] could result in big economic benefits over a short period of time for the U.S. In fact, the level of benefit and period of time it would take to recoup the costs from the policy change is unprecedented in economic terms.

Senior Economist

Someone who sleeps less than 6 hours compared to someone who sleeps 7 to 9 hours misses on average about 6 days more ... and this obviously has an effect on the economy because they don't deliver their productive capacity for their companies.